By Lily Alexander and Phaedra Haywood
The Santa Fe New Mexican
(TNS)
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — A former employee of New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges accusing her of posing as an IRS agent and defrauding a man out of more than $150,000 in a yearslong scheme.
Sandra Vega, 48, used fake phone numbers and pretended to be an IRS agent for about eight years, federal court records say, coaxing a man referred to as “John Doe” into transferring funds to her in exchange for a supposed “large sum of money.”
The Pecos woman pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque to four counts of wire fraud and one count of impersonating a federal officer or employee and demanding something of value.
Vega faces up to 23 years in prison at her sentencing—which will come at a later date—plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution to the victim.
“I do appreciate you accepting responsibility today,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing told Vega after the plea.
Earlier, as she sat in the gallery before her case was called, Vega quietly wept. She briefly left the courtroom, wiping away tears.
Vega told The New Mexican in a phone interview after the hearing she was willing to take responsibility for the charges to prevent the victim from having to attend more court proceedings but declined to comment further.
Details of the case were scarce before and during the hearing, and no related documents appeared in a federal court records database until hours later.
A charging document filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office outlines four text messages sent to John Doe by different phone numbers Vega had obtained through the platforms TextFree and TextNow. Vega asked the man for his name, birth date and Social Security number, and instructed him to pay thousands of dollars in fees, while simultaneously telling him he would receive deposits of up to $791,680, according to the document.
She claimed some of the fees were refundable, and she told him she had submitted his payments to the IRS. Meanwhile, Vega used the money for personal expenses, federal prosecutors alleged.
The scheme dates back to at least 2018 and continued until at least March, prosecutors said.
The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Santa Fe did not respond to requests for comment; however, the State Personnel Office confirmed Monday Vega appeared to have worked for the agency between October 2021 and July 2022 before resigning.
A LinkedIn account under Vega’s name listed her job at the agency as “victim advocate.”
Vega confirmed she had simultaneously worked at Solace Sexual Assault Services, a Santa Fe nonprofit that provides services for survivors of sexual assault, child abuse and sex trafficking.
The organization did not respond to a request for comment.
Vega is also a defendant in a civil case pending in state District Court, filed by a woman who asserts she lended Vega $159,000 shortly after the two began working together at the local prosecutor’s office in 2021.
Plaintiff Dakota Haraden’s July 2025 complaint alleges she and Vega had only known each other for a short time before Vega asked to borrow the money. Vega told Haraden “her bank accounts were frozen and she could not pay her husband’s employees for their business,” the complaint states.
“I offered to help her under the impression she would pay me back, to date, she has not,” Haraden wrote in the complaint.
Haraden declined to comment on the pending litigation Monday.
The parties participated in mediation and agreed to a payment schedule earlier this year, but after making an $800 payment in April and a $2,300 payment in May, Vega failed to make payments in June, July and August, according to a motion Haraden filed in September asking the court to enforce the payment schedule.
Vega manages a Pecos-based company called El Valle Landscaping, which was formed in 2021, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
She also takes care of her mother, her public defender said.
Vega appeared in court Monday out of federal custody and will remain free on personal recognizance ahead of her sentencing. During that period, she won’t be allowed to gamble, have more than one phone number or serve as anyone’s fiduciary, among other requirements.
Photo credit: rawpixel.com/Freepik
_______
© 2026 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.). Visit www.santafenewmexican.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
Sign in to get access to this free resource, and all of our whitepapers and reports.
Download this content today!
Register Now Already registered? Click here to Log In
Tags: fraud, guilty pleas, impersonating IRS agent, IRS, wire fraud
